Was this a chance to spoof some of the straight teen roles you've played?
Deon: Of course, and the ones we've gone out for. We've auditioned for these roles a million times and been turned down a million times for the same roles in the non-spoof films.
Jaime: Here I'm playing like three of the characters that I didn't book but I got to the bitter end (of auditioning).
Which ones did you try out for?
Jaime: "She's All That" bitch, "Bring it On" bitch, the bitch - period. In all these
movies, these bad teen movies, my character is made up of the movies in the
last five or six years, not the John Hughes films. My character is so
over the top, but it's just funny to me. The whole point of this film is
people are like, "So, this is a teen movie?" No, did you not read the title?
It's "Not Another Teen Movie." We're catering to the baby boomer generation as
well because of the John Hughes films.
John Hughes isn't "baby boomer" though.
Jaime: No, they're not - they were our generation growing up in the 80s, however our parents
watched them with us because it was the time when we were watching movies
with our parents.
Deon: It was a time when, if you think about all the movies from before, you won't really hear parents talking too much about "She's All That" or "Bring it On," but they all remember "The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller."
But don't you think those are classics?
Jaime: That's why I said it would cater to the baby boomer generation, as well.
Deon: And that's the reason because the movies that have been written in the past five or six years have been typical, poorly written, "let's just stick with same concept, just get a good look on there" films. Adults hate them.
Jaime: And the crazy thing is - I don't know why the actors allow
them to do it in the first place. They pigeonhole actors because they
keep getting them to play, offering them the same role over and over and
over, just rewording the same damn thing. It's really hard to say no to
money but you have to. Everything happens for a reason. I did get all those
characters because now I'm making fun of all those characters in one
character in one movie. And I think our movie is 150 times better than all
of them. Not the John Hughes films, I mean the ones in the last five or six
years. They're awful.
Deon: That's the coolest thing because I play the token black guy and a couple of the guys who have played black guys in the movies are my friends. They're going to look at this like, "Damn, he's doing me" (laughing). But it's cool because the sad thing about it is, you can't remember them right now. You can't remember who they are, what their names are. But I'm going to be remembered forever for being the "token black guy." I didn't get any of the roles I was supposed to get, that I was supposed to be the token black guy. That's going to be the best thing about this role for me.
Jaime: We're setting the tone. We're trying to stop all the BS films, not single-handedly or anything. If the film does as well as we'd like it to, then I think it will definitely change a couple of minds, especially in the industry.
Did you get to make up any of your own catch phrases?
Deon: No, not really. They were all made up, it was just more like how to say them. I wanted to stay away from the real phrases we say today. I just wanted to make fun of it as much as we could. It can't be cool. It has to be bad.
Where did the "bitch" pigeonhole come from?
Jaime: Because of my deep voice and my street-like [aura]. I've been on my own
since I was 15, so I've got that tough girl tomboy [thing]. I'm a Leo.
People just didn't see me as this sweet, vulnerable, innocent girl. They saw
me as the strong, tough whatever who could play the bitch well. And bitches
are fun to play. They really are.
Did you get pigeonholed for erotic thrillers when you did "Poison Ivy?"
Jaime: Yeah, but I didn't take them.
How did you resist stuff like that?
Jaime: I didn't want to take my clothes off. It's easy to say no. I wasn't supposed
to in the first film I did, "Poison Ivy." I was supposed to show the
silhouette of my left boob while I'm changing, putting my shirt on and you
were supposed to see me swimming in a G-string bikini, so you saw my butt. Now
there's what? Six or seven scenes where you see my boobs and my butt. They
tried to use lower frontal nudity at one point and I ran off set, called my
lawyer. This is the very first film I ever did, okay. I was 18 and 19 years
old. Knowing that I didn't know what I was doing at the time, I didn't know
that I could say, "No, I don't want to do that. No, it wasn't in the nudity
clause." I had no idea. My manager was new, who I'm still with. She was in
Germany for the three weeks I was filming, so it was a big learning lesson
for me and I don't regret it because I learned what I can and cannot do,
what I do and do not have to do and what I can and cannot say no to. So, I
learned a lot of lessons and unfortunately a lot of women get started in the
business that way. It's unfortunate but true.
Would there be any circumstance where you might be willing to do nudity
again?
Jaime: As long as it didn't have to do with some huge sex scene. As long as it's
not "Poison Ivy," yeah. It's got to be the right movie, the right people
surrounding me and the right script and character. I'm not afraid of it, I
just don't want to use it for blatant like, "We need ratings, here's my tits." I'm not going to do that. That movie was strictly T&A and the only way to sell it was to show my T&A which is why they did that. I didn't realize all
that stuff until after the fact, but now I know.
What about doing the cover of "Maxim?"
Jaime: "Maxim's" very different. "Maxim's" okay now because I had done two things on
the inside of "Maxim." In the last two or three years I've been one of their
100 girls. It's become such a big ordeal, everyone has their top 100 girls.
"FHM," "Maxim," "Stuff," all of them. It's quite ridiculous because I look in
there and I'm like, "Okay, really? What is she doing there?" It's like
"People's" 50 Most Beautiful People of the Year. You're like, "Who the hell is
that and why on earth?" But I like "Maxim" because A) it's a good magazine.
Great articles in it. It's kind of like "Playboy." There are good articles in
it. There really are. Girls say yes to these things and they do
these things on their own. No one forces them to. I'm not putting anybody
down because they said so, just like Freddie Prinze said, "Sure, I'll go do
the same part five times." They'll take the check, it's their deal. However,
I did the cover of "Stuff."
Is it different being sexy in something like "Maxim" than doing a nude scene in a movie?
Jaime: Absolutely, because I'm not nude in "Maxim."
What was your experience like working with that magazine?
Jaime: They were trying to change the face of "Maxim" for the December issue or
whatever and we did a Helmut Newton-type shoot where everything was black
and white. It was the first time they'd ever done that, and the first short-haired cover they'd ever done. They wanted to put extensions on me and I'm like, "Well, I'll leave right now. I cut my hair for a reason. I'm not going
to be in the bombshell category anymore. I don't want to be." People are
going to put me in that anyway just because that's them, but I chopped my
hair for myself, but also so that everybody would realize that I'm not
trying to hide behind my hair. There's more to me than my long, blonde hair
and my little dancer body. I want to be able to do other things and they
were pigeonholing me so badly because of that, that is was ridiculous. "Maxim" is not a bad magazine.
"Stuff" is not a bad magazine. I did two covers last year of "Stuff." They
pigeonholed me into the second cover. It was one that I did with five or six
other girls but we shot them individually and then they put us in for a
movie. The movie never came out here. It ended up releasing in Europe. So,
they pulled the thing but they wanted to use me on the cover instead, so
they held it. Meanwhile, I was supposed to do "Maxim" to promote "Joe Dirt" and
"Tomcats" and couldn't do it. So, they released "Stuff" at the wrong time
calling me 'The Movie Girl of the Year' or something which is to make me feel
better I guess about it.
What about "Playboy?"
Jaime: I did it when I was 20. I did a celebrity pictorial. I'll never do it again. I don't have a problem with other people doing it, it's just something I don't want to do for myself. I've been there and done that, you know.
Ever talk to Drew Barrymore or Alyssa Milano?
Jaime: I've spoken to Alyssa quite a few times. Drew I've never met.
Did she mention how she got over "Poison Ivy?"
Jaime: It came up because in the second one, I was her body double. That's how they
found me for the third one. Every time Alyssa is reading Ivy's diary, she
sees pictures in there, as she's reading it and imagining Ivy, that's me.
You don't see my face, but that's me and as she's looking at all the
pictures, all the pictures are me, because Drew wasn't going to come and do
something like that. So then a year and a half, two years later - [By the
way], I love Drew Barrymore. I think she's great - but no, a year and a
half, two years later that's how they found me. They couldn't find a girl
and they found my picture, an old picture and called me and said, "Are you
acting or anything?" Because at the time I was modeling.
What's next for you?
Deon: I just finished doing this movie, "Van Wilder: Party Liaison" with Ryan Reynolds and Tara Reid. That's about it, just waiting for that to drop.
Jaime: I have a development deal with ABC and Touchstone. We're developing a series
that will be released in the Fall of 2002. And while we were shooting this
film, I did a kids' film for my seven-year-old sister who cried and said,
"How come I never get to see sissy do anything?" I did a kids' film with Jon
Voight, "Unleashed," and it's a talking dog and the whole thing. I'm not the
lead which is okay, but at least Jessie, my sister, will [see it]. She
literally can't watch any of my stuff. "Jack and Jill" was past her bed time.
